packing

[flyhy 0]

I constantly get off heading openings everytime I packed my canopy (sabre). Once our rigger packed it and it was a nice opening. I asked several people at my dz about packing an on heading opening but they all just show me 'their' way of packing without answering my question. Now I now a lot of different ways to pack a canopy but still I'd like to know what causes an off-h. opening on a sabre - and how to prevent it.

[Skyflier 0]

Could you tell us what you are doing when you are packing? ie, what you do to the nose etc.

[AlanRussell 0]

Assuming that your lines are in trim and your gear is all well maintained, an off heading opening is likely to be caused by either asymmetry in your body or harness loading during deployment or asymmetry in your pack job.

Asymmetry in your harness loading during deployment may be caused by poor body position, e.g. one shoulder lower than the other, or it could happen if your harness is not tightened evenly.

For packing (I am assuming that you are pro-packing, although you could flat pack if you want), keep a line of symmetry from font to back up the middle of the canopy i.e. do the same to both sides. Flake the material to the outside, keep the lines to the inside, cloverleaf the slider, be careful pulling the tail around (pull it round your knee to avoid pulling brake or d-lines around to the front. Do whatever you want to do to the nose but do the same to both sides. With a Sabre, I would normally loosely roll the four outer cells on each side toward the centre cell until the a-lines start to twist. Next wrap the tail around and roll it until you have control of the bundle then gently set it to the ground.

The setting down of the canopy is one of the points in the packing process that bugs me most when I see people wind the pack-job up like a professional wrestler and slam it on the ground. When this happens effort spent previously in keeping the pack-job neat is wasted. The next thing that annoys me is when I see the same people pushing up the loose line underneath the canopy to just below the slider, giving a increased risk of tension knots in the lines and slider hang-up.

When you put the canopy into the bag, make sure you fill the bag evenly and the central seam of the canopy is running up the centre of the bag with the lines coming out of the centre.

PD say that your line stows should be 2.5 to 3 inches in length and it should take 8 to 12 pounds of force to remove each line stow. One way to gauge this is to see if you can lift up the bag by the unstowed lines. If you cannot, then the stow is too loose.

Leave at least 18 inches of line unstowed. This length provides a good trade-off between minimising the risk of twists and risking loose lines becoming knotted or tangled. If you leave less unstowed then your chances of twists are increased due to the fact that the lines are normally stowed on the edges of the bag so when a stow is being released, one side of the bag is being loaded more than the other and if you leave less line unstowed, the bag has less chance to accelerate before the stows come out making the uneven loading more of a problem.

Lastly, make sure the bag is put in the container symmetrically and evenly.

In short, keep things symmetrical and even throughout your packing and deployment.

This is probably more information than you were looking for but I hope that you find it useful.

[Zoltan 0]

Hi,

Off heading canopy deployment can be because of asymmetric opening. Let's not talk about body position and harness... only packing

1. pay attention how you roll the nose. As Alan wrote, roll the four outer cells on each side toward the center cell. Sabre packers just roll all the 9 cells to one direction (and it still does not necessarily cause off heading openings)

2. Place the nose __exactly__ in the middle. If the packing is not 100% symmetrical then one side of the canopy might inflate faster and starts to fly when the other side of the is still inflating.

3. place the slider in a correct cross... AND then pull out the slider material on the nose side... It will cause slower and more controllable openings.

But the most important is the symmetry, in packing job, in harness adjustment, opening body position, riser input during the opening.

If nothing helps then check your lines, first the brakes (might be twisted) and the the rests.

have fun and blue skies.

[Kris 0]

Everyone has supplied excellent information. One more teqhnique you can add into the mix is to tie your 3-rings together with a pull-up cord.

This keeps the risers even and prevents you from pulling the lines on one side of the canopy further from the other side.

I do this on my Stiletto, a notoriously twitchy canopy, and you would cringe if you saw my "quick-and-dirty" pack job, but it consistantly opens on-heading.

Kris

Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

[Samurai136 0]

Ask your rigger how he packed your main.

Ken

"Buttons aren't toys." - Trillian
Ken

[flyhy 0]

I think my deployment position is ok, so it must be my way of packing. Actually I never roll the nose but leave it hanging in front, still get slow openings.
Thanx for all the advice, there's a lot to try now.
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